Azalea.
I'm a captive of the most high.
Wait. Not God, of the most high, though. I mean someone less… uh…
Urgh! What a failed attempt at unintentional blasphemy.
"Them chains have you on choke hold?" Loka suddenly asks.
I shake my head before pulling my hands apart so that the chains could tug itself—even though I don't really understand how the shackles on my wrists could choke me.
"Fucked a lot of women before?" she queries again, now looking back at me with a jerked brow.
I watch her wrap the chain linked to me repeatedly around her wrist. And as the question sinks in, I suddenly divert my stare to her face again. "Hm?"
Loka smiles before repeating herself. "Have you had a lot of sex?"
I nod nonchalantly. "Hm."
"Any Firne?"
"Don't know."
"It's hard not to tell a Firne, y'know." Loka faces her front. "You definitely haven't laid with one before."
I remain silent due to the fact that I may have lost interest in playing with the girl.
Instead, my eyes are drawn to the one rushing the wind afar off in front of us.
Her hurried steps are raising dust. Those angry gaits could even raise the gars to beat the sunrise.
"You think she's angry?" I ask Loka who once had a lingering frown, and a deeper one now.
"She has no reason to be."
"What, Firnes fight too?"
"Surprisingly, yes, and for the pettiest reasons as well."
I huff. "Waste—all that talk of loyalty, I mean."
"Don't be mistaken, though. If it comes to killing you here and now, we'll do so unitedly and gladly."
"Yeah, like you both did at the forest? 'Unitedly', I mean. I don't doubt the gladly part."
"Hm," Loka huffs a smile.
Distracted, still looking at Lust's quickly disappearing form, I don't know when Loka jabs her leg against one of mine, brushing me to the ground and turning me to lie on my back as she crouches on my stomach.
I wince, an intense ache spreading through my spine to my buttocks then rushing back to my head before I yell, "Jesus Christ! What was that for?"
"Jesus from a witch's lips is blasphemy."
Something presses my crotch and throat area. Only then do I realize that Loka has each claw-full hands on these parts.
As I look at her with a clear streak of shock drawn on my face, she smiles.
"Have you seen the bodies I left in the woods? They have one or more parts missing. For grace, I choose just your head and dick. Which one do you want off first?"
"Presumably none," I gasp.
Loka squishes my cock softly. "Not an option."
"You're insane!" I yell before Loka tightens her grip on my neck.
"Say that again and I'll be stuffing your mouth with your hefty penis before you even finish those words."
I grin despite my shock. "I like that word 'hefty'. At least you appreciate that I stuffed your ass. Come to think of it, you're nearly sitting on me, and you're naked." I look down at where Loka and I meet. "No offense should be taken if something pops out of my pants into your asshole."
"Shut up." Loka fists my nose.
I groan in pain as she gets up and continues walking, while I stagger to my feet, watching her jiggly ass.
She still doesn't bother to get some clothes on, probably because she has none left since she abandoned them in the forest of oaks—or she simply enjoys seducing a whole damn desert.
I only wish it were Lust naked. Then, I'd have been fucking seduced.
~
We are lucky to have made it out of Gar valley before nightfall. These cloud beasts have no dinner tonight. Pity.
"Barely," Loka suddenly says while setting a fire in front of where I'm sitting at the edge of Tunnel Eyesrall.
"Barely what?"
"We escaped the Gars by a slim chance."
I turn to my right side—at the forest of Gars—to see them hovering in the sky.
Loka's right. We made it to the cave under the Gallant Peaks by a slim chance. That's because Lust kept dragging us forward with her own hurried trails.
I stare across the fire at where she's sitting alone on a rock, withdrawn to herself. And, somehow, it seems as if her stillness exposes her inner self to me.
Like the walls within walls surrounding her heart, topped by another thick layer of solid iron. They're unpredictable, fascinating too; makes me want to break down those walls and discover her innermost embodiment.
"It's still a wonder how I can't read your mind even though I managed to get a glimpse seconds ago," Loka says, sitting beside me. "It's also a wonder how you're not questioning how I read your mind either. It's as if this is all too familiar to you."
I smile while still having my eyes on Lust. "Everyone knows Firne abilities."
"But almost none can defy those abilities. How you can block your mind from me is absurd. Your witchery must be really solid."
"No witchy-woo in chains." I present my cuffed hands to Loka, but she merely looks at them like they're ridiculous.
"Socculus would believe that. Not me." She taps my shoulder and gets up. "I need some time alone. She'll watch you."
Loka moves ahead towards Lust, stopping to tell the latter something before walking past her.
Lust doesn't respond. She simply keeps staring at the rough cave ground while illustrating something on it with her toes.
I stand up and make my way to her. She's still unresponsive as I sit beside her. Then I take the other end of the chain pinned on my handcuffs and put in her hands.
She shoves it back to me. "That's Loka's job now."
I shrug. "Well, someone needs to watch me, and Loka's not here." Despite that I'm intently staring at the lady, she refuses to look at me. "You know one thing I've learned from you two?"
"Uninterested."
"It's that Firnes have an extre… mely bad temperament."
"I've lived a millennia with that. Loka's three centuries. You're just in your late twenties, and a captive. So maybe our temperament serves us better than your good one."
I chuckle. Funny. "I didn't say I have a good temperament. Besides, it's what you are that made you live so long."
Lust's hair are straying to her forehead; their original position are small parted strands cascading down her temples, while the rest are gathered into a ponytail.
I love the way baby hairs are streaked on her nape. They look cute, contrasting with the fiery look on her face.
Her silk black hair resonates with mine. But our eyes are way different. Hers is as deep as the ocean's color, and the striking red that possesses her pupils makes them look like the easiest entrance to hell.
Well, aside from letting her drag you into one.
The corner of her eyes are thick with black eyeliner, her lips taking a fondness to her dark lip gloss. They make her look devilish, coupled with the fact that her skin is pale.
"Will you stop looking at me?" she cuts into my reverie.
"Only if you'll stop avoiding my gaze." I smirk.
What sounds like someone stepping on pebbles echo from the cave entrance.
As Lust whips her head to that direction, I sense her tension.
"It's just Loka," I say.
"It's not Loka," she replies calmly, standing up.
Staggering footsteps approach us, then from the darkness into the light comes a tattered-looking man who seems like who life has taught a hard lesson.
He has a deep, bleeding wound on his shoulder. Seems like he has been running from Gars since the sun went down.
"Help me," is the only sentence he croaks out before slumping to the ground.
Lust rushes to his rescue, but I'm sat where I am, wanting to tell her but also holding back the information that this man is not a victim of gars.
He is someone sent to help me.